You may say: „Okay, but that’s an Indian website – India has an … ahem … special relationship with Pakistan!“. dna did nothing but quote Twitter posts (aka tweets) by Pakistanis – some of whom are not lone crazies but have quite a few followers.

I addressed some of them. With the exception of Mehki, the Tigress of IK:-) (see below), they weaseled away from answering my questions:

The Tigress also posted this:https://twitter.com/MehkiMasood/status/521012341190574080
Mehki seems to have deleted many of the tweets she sent my way last night – along with the picture which was part of the above tweet (which is why most of her tweets just appear as text, without working links). But I found the pic in the tweet of an anti-semitic fool:

Malala did *not* say the above anywhere in her book. When I asked Mehki if she knew when and where Malala supposedly made the above statement, she suddenly turned quiet – just like the above correspondents.

Yousafzai said she was honored to meet Obama and that she raised concerns with him about the administration’s use of drones, saying they are „fueling terrorism.“

„I thanked President Obama for the United States‘ work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees,“ Yousafzai said in a statement published by the Associated Press. „I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact.„

Many residents looked askance at the procession, pointing out that even as leaders paid lip service to Malala’s education drive, they were allowing schools in her hometown to crumble under government neglect and continued military occupation.

„This obviously makes people unhappy. If the government did its job, people wouldn’t have to hate Malala. They feel abandoned,“ said Ahmed Shah, Malala’s former teacher and a close friend of her father.

Pakistan has emerged as 113th of 120 countries in a global literacy ranking. The rate of female literacy among young women is 61 per cent, as compared with 79 per cent for males of the same age. Moreover, more than 40 per cent of girls who drop out of schools do not re-enroll. In many rural areas, as schools are located at a distance, families remain hesitant to allow their girls to commute. Some cannot afford the cost of the commute.

The translator broke down in tears while recounting their [Nabila Rehman’s family’s] story, but the government made it a point to snub this family and ignore the tragedy it had caused to them. Nabila, a slight girl of nine with striking hazel eyes, asked a simple question in her testimony: „What did my grandmother do wrong?“ There was no one to answer this question, and few who cared to even listen. Symbolic of the utter contempt in which the government holds the people it claims to be liberating, while the Rehmans recounted their plight, Barack Obama was spending the same time meeting with the CEO of weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

It is useful to contrast the American response to Nabila Rehman with that of Malala Yousafzai, a young girl who was nearly assassinated by the Pakistani Taliban. While Malala was feted by Western media figures, politicians and civic leaders for her heroism, Nabila has become simply another one of the millions of nameless, faceless people who have had their lives destroyed over the past decade of American wars.

Kailash Satyarthi

Let’s not forget about Malala’s co-winner. Here is a video by Kailash Satyarthi’s organization Bachpan Bachao Andolan. It states that everyday in India, „almost forty girls under the age of fifteen, are forced into prostitution. This film suggests a simple way by which we can help stop this inhuman practice.“